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OBSERVATION'S 



A COLLECTION OF 



CHALCHIHUITLS 



MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 



OBSEEVATIONS 



CHALCHIHUITL 



^ 



MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 



t 



FELLOW OF THE AJSTTIQUABIAN SOCIETY OF J.ONDON ; THE ROYAL SOCIETY OP AKTIQUAEIES 
OF DENMABK; THE ANTHROPOLO&KUL SOCIETIES OF LONDON AND PARIS, ETC. 




E. G. SQUIEE^-J^A. 




EXTRACT FBOM THE ANNALS OE THE LYCEUM OE NATURAL HISTORY OF 

NEW YORK. 



NEW TOEK; 
1869. 



f,^'"^ 



% 




Among the articles of ornament used by the aboriginal 
inhabitants of Mexico and Central America, those worked 
from some variety of green stone resembling emerald, and 
called by the Kahnatl or Mexican name chalchiuitl, chalohi- 
huitl^ or chalchiuite^ were most highly esteemed, and are 
oftenest mentioned by the early explorers and chroniclers. 
The word chalchiuitl is defined by Molina, in his Vooabulario 
Mexicano (1571), to signify esmeralda haja^ or an inferior kind 
of emerald. The precious emerald, or emerald proper, was 
called quetzalitztli, from the quetzal, the bird known to science 
as the trogan resplendens (the splendid plumes of which, of bril- 
liant metallic green, were worn by the kings of Mexico and 
Central America as regal insignia), and itzli, stone ; i. e. the 
stone of the quetzal. 

The value attached to the chalcMhuitl by the ancient Mexi- 
cans will appear from the testimony of the chronicler Bernal 
Diaz, which is supported by that of all the historians of the 
Discovery and Conquest. The first messengers that Monte- 
zuma sent to Cortez, on his landing at San Juan de Ulua, 
brought, among other presents, " four cJialchihuitls, a species 
of green stone of uncommon value, which is held in higher 
estimation with them than the smaragdusr (Lockhart's 
Translation of Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 93.) Subsequently, after 
having firmly established himself in Mexico, Cortez required 
of the Emperor Montezuma that he should collect tribute from 

* I have followed the orthography of the -word throughout, as given by the 
various authors quoted. 



4 Observations on a Collection of 

all his vassals for the Spanish crown, which he proceeded at 
once to do ; and, at the end of twenty days, handed over to 
Cortez all the treasures he had got together, amounting in value 
to QQO. 000 pesos. Bernal Diaz reports that Montezuma apolo- 
gized for the smallness of the amount, on the score that his 
time for collecting the tribute had been too short ; but that he 
would make it worthy of the acceptance of the Spanish king 
by adding to it the treasures of his father, and also " a few 
chalchihuis of such enormous value that I would not consent 
to give them to any one save such a powerful emperor as 
yours ; each of these stones is worth two loads of gold." (7J,, 
vol. i. p. 278.) 

Sahagun mentions four of the Mexican gods who were the 
especial patrons of the lapidaries, and honored as the inven- 
tors of the art " of working stones and chalchiuites, and of 
drilling and polishing them." He does not, however, describe 
the process made use of by the Indians in cutting precious 
stones, " because," he says, " it is so common and well under- 
stood ; " an omission which his editor, Bustamente, regrets, 
" since the art is now entirely lost." 

Quetzalcoatl^ the lawgiver, high-priest, and instructor of the 
Mexicans in the arts, is said to have taught not only the M'ork- 
ing of metals, but " particularly the art of cutting precious 
stones, such as chalchiuites^ whicli are green stones, much 
esteemed, and of great value." {Torquemaday lib. vi. cap. 
xxiv.) Quetzalcoatl himself, according to certain traditions, 
was begotten by one of these stones, which the goddess Chi- 
malma had placed in her bosom. Indeed, both among the 
Mexicans and the nations ftirtlier to the southward, the chalchi- 
hnitl seems to have represented everything that was excellent 
in its kind. Its name was used in compounding designations of 
distinction and honor, and was applied both to heroes and 
divinities. Tlie goddess of water bore the name of Chal- 
chiuith'uye, the woman of the chalchiuites ,' and the name of 
Chaichiuhajxiti was often applied to the city of Tlaxcalla, from 



ChalGhihuitls from Central America. 5 

a beautiful fountain of water near it, the color of which, accord- 
ing to Torquemada, " was between blue and green." Oortez, 
according to the same authority, was often called " Chal- 
chniitl, which is the same as captain of great valor, because 
chalchiuitl is the color of emerald, and the emeralds are held 
in high estimation among the nations." {Monarchia Indiana, 
vol. i. p. 435.) When a great dignitary died, his corpse was 
richly decorated for burial with gold and plumes of feathers, 
and " they put in his mouth a fine stone resembling emerald, 
which they call chalchihidtl, and which, they say, they place 
as a heart." (/Z>., vol. ii. p. 521.) 

Sahagun, in one place, describes the chalchihuitl as " a jas- 
per of very green color, or a common emerald." Elsewhere 
he goes into a very full description of the various kinds of 
green stones which the Mexicans held in esteem, and as MkS 
account may materially aid in identifjang the chalchihuitl, it 
is subjoined entire : 

" The emerald which the Mexicans call quetzalitztli is pre- 
cious, of great value, and is so called, because by the word 
quetzalli they mean to say a very green plume, and by itztli, 
flint. It is smooth, without spot ; and these peculiarities 
belong to the good emerald ; namely, it is deep green with a 
polished surface, without stain, transparent, and at the same 
time lustrous. There is another kind of stone which is called 
quetzalchalchwitl^'&o called because it is very green and resem- 
bles the chalchimtl ; the best of these are of deep green, trans- 
parent, and without spot ; those which are of inferior quality 
have veins and spots intermingled. The Mexicans work these 
stones into various shapes; some are round and pierced, others 
long, cylindrical, and pierced ; others triangular, hexagonal, 
or square. There are still other stones called chalchivites, 
which are green (but not transparent), mixed with white ; 
they are much used by the chiefs, who wear them fastened to 
their wrists by cords, as a sign of rank. The lower orders 
{maceguales) are not allowed to wear them. . . . There 



6 Ohsei'vations on a Collection of 

is yet another stone called tlilaiotic, a kind of chalchuite, in 
color black and green mixed. . . . And among the jaspers 
is a variety in color white mixed with green, and for this reason 
called iztacchalchiuitl* Another variety has veins of clear 
o-reen or blue, with other colors interspersed with the white. 
. And there is yet another kind of green stone which 
resembles the chalchiuities, and called xoxouhquitecpatl.-f It 
is known to the lapidaries as tecelic, for ihe reason that it is 
very easy to work, and has spots of clear blue. The wrought 
and curious stones which the natives wear attached to their 
wrists, whether of crystal or other precious stones, they call 
chopilotl — a designation that is given to any stone curiously 
worked or very beautiful." {Historia de JS'ueva Espaha^ lib. 
xi. cap. viii.) The same author, describing the ornaments 
which the Mexican lords used in their festivals, speaks of a 
" head-dress called quetsalaljpitoai., consisting of two tassels of 
rich plumes, set in gold, and worn suspended from the hair at 
the crown of the head, and hanging down on each side towards 
the shoulders. They also wear rings of gold around the arms 
and in their ears, and round their wrists a broad band of 
black leather, and suspended to this a large bead of chal- 
chiuitl or other precious stone. They also wear a chin orna- 
ment (barhote) of chalchiuitl set in gold, fixed in the beard. 
Some of these harhotes are large crystals, with blue feathers 
put in them, which give them the appearance of sapphires. 
There are many other varieties of precious stones which they 
use for harhotes. They have their lower lips slit, and wear 
these ornaments in the openings, where they appear as if com- 
ing out of the fiesh ; and they wear in the same way semi- 
lunes of gold. The noses of the great lords are also pierced, 
and in the openings they wear fine turquoises or other pre- 
cious stones, one on each side. They wear strings of precious 

* hiac signifies white ; i. e. white-chalrhihuitl. 

•J- From xoxouhqui, cosa verde, something green, and tecpail, sUyne ; i.e. green- 
stone. 



Chalchihuitls from Central America. 7 

stones around their necks, sustaining a gold medal set round 
with pearls, and having in its centre a smooth precious stone." 
(/&., lib, viii. cap. ix.) 

And here, as confirming the definition of chalGhihuitl as given 
by Molina, I quote the exact words of Montolina, in his letter 
of 1555, to which Senor Icazbalceta has given the first place in 
his " Coleccion de Documentos para la Historia de Mexico." I 
quote from page 189, on which, enumerating the riches of 
Mexico, he says : " Hay mucho oro y plata, y todos los metales 
y piedras, en especial turquesos, y otras que aca se dicen chal- 
chiuitl ; las finas de estas son esmeraldas.^^ 

The chronicler Fuentes, in his unpublished history of the 
old kingdom of Guatemala, speaks of the Indians of Quiche as 
wearing " head-dresses of rich feathers and brilliant stones, 
chalohiguites, which were very large and of great weight, un- 
der which they danced without wearying." The Licenciado 
Palacio, in his account of the Pipil Indians of San Salvador, 
also makes mention of these stones, which were worn on the 
wrists and ankles, and also supposed, like the hezoar stone, to 
be a specific against certain diseases. {Carta al Hey de JEs- 
jpana^ Squier's " Coleccion de Documentos Originates^ e^c," vol. 

In these descriptions, it will be seen that the chalchihuitls 
are spoken of as ornaments, round or oblong beads, which 
conforms with the representations in the paintings. But these 
or similar green stones were used for other jjurposes. The 
chronicler Yillagutierre, in his account of the conquest of the 
Itzaes of Yucatan, speaks of idols in their temples " of precious 
jasper, green, red, and of other colors ; " and, in describing 
the great temple of Tayasal, mentions particularly an idol 
which was found in it, " a span long, of rough emerald {es- 
meralda hrutd)., which the infidels called the god of Battles," 
and which the conquering general, Ursua, took as part of his 
share of the spoil. 

It appears that when the Spaniards first landed in Tabasco, 



8 Observations on a CoUtciion of 

they mistook some of these chalGhihuitles for true emeralds ; at 
any rate the Indians were eager to obtain the glass beads of the 
Spaniards, not knowing them to be artificial. If, however, the 
Spaniards really fell into any mistake as to these stones, they 
were not long in finding it out, as appears from an anecdote re- 
lated, by Torquemada, describing how Don Pedro Alvarado 
often played with Montezuma at a game called hodoque, in 
which, while the latter paid his losses in gold, the former paid 
his in chalchiuites, " que son piedras entre los Indios estimada, 
y entre los Castellanos, no," {Mon. Ind., vol. i. p. J:62.) 

The Mexicans nevertheless had true emeralds, of which we 
have left to us the most glowing desciuptions. Gomara de- 
scribes particularly five large ones which Cortez took with him 
from Mexico to Spain at the time of his first visit, and which 
were regarded as among the finest in the world. They were 
valued at 100,000 ducats, and for one of them the Genoese 
merchants offered 40,000 ducats, with the view of selling it to 
the Grand Turk. Cortez had also the emerald vases, which 
the padre Mariana assures us, in the supplement of his History 
of Spain, were worth 300,000 ducats. They are reported to 
have been lost at sea. All these emeralds were cut in Mexico 
bv Indian lapidaries under the orders of Cortez, and were most 
elaborately worked. One was wrought in the form of a little 
bell, with a fine pearl for a clapper, and had on its lip this 
inscription in Spanish, Bendito quien te criS ! Blessed he who 
made thee ! The one valued most highly was in the shape of 
a cup, with a foot of gold. All of them were presented by 
Cortez to his second wife, who thus, says Gonuira, became 
possessed of finer jewels than any other woman in Spain. 
Remarkable as were these emeralds, Peter Martyr mentions 
one, of which Cortez was robbed by the French pirates, that 
must have surpassed any of them in size and value. " But 
what shall wee speake of lewellcs and precious stones ? Omit- 
tin"' the rest, tiiere was an Emerode like a Pyramis^ the lowest 
part or bottome whereof was almost as broad as the palme of 



Chalchihuitls from Central America. 9 

a mans liande, such a one (as was reported to Ccesar, and to iis 
in the Kinges Senate) as never any human Eye behelde. The 
French Admirall is said to have gotten it of the Pyrattes at 
an incredible price." {Decade viii, c. 4.) 

Coming down to later times, we find Prof. P. Blake, in the 
American Journal of Science and Arts for March, 1858, in an 
interesting article on " The Chalchihuitil of the Mexicans," in- 
forming us that the Navajo Indians in the northern and western 
portions of iJ^ew Mexico wear small ornaments and trinkets of 
a hard, green stone, which they call by the Mexican name, and 
which they regard as of great value ; " a string of fragments 
large enough for an ear-ring being worth as much as a mule." 
Mr. Blake, suspecting this stone to be turquoise, and learning 
that it was yet procured in small quantity b}' the Indians 
among the mountains about twenty miles from Santa Fe, 
visited the spot, where he found an immense pit excavated in 
granular porphyry, " 200 feet in depth and 300 or more in 
width," besides some smaller excavations. He obtained many 
fragments of the so-called chalGhihuitil " of apple-green and 
peagreen, passing into bluish-green, capable of a fine polish, 
and of a hardness little less than that of feldspar." The frag- 
ments found were small, not exceeding three-quarters of an 
inch in length and one-quarter of an inch in thickness, and 
the material " appeared to have formed crusts upon the sur- 
faces of cavities or fissures in the rock, or to have extended 
through it in veins." 

Mr. Blake's description applies to the specimens exhibited 
to the Lyceum not long ago by Prof. JSTewberry, and there is 
no doubt that the material was, or rather is, a variety of the 
turquoise. But I doubt if it be the true Ghalohihuitl of the 
Mexicans and Central Americans. That they used the stone 
described by Mr. Blake for certain purposes, I know ; for there 
exists in the museum of the late Mr. Henry Christy, in Lon- 
don, a human skull completely encrusted with a mosaic of 
precisely this stone, and a flint knife with its handle elaborately 



10 



Ohservatioiis on a Collection of 



inlaid with it, in small fragments. Of the first of these relics 
I present a drawing made by Waldeck and published by the 
Fi'encli Government. See Fig. 1.* 




Fig. 1. 
Human Skull, Ancient Mexican, inlaid with turquoise and obsidian. 

The weight of evidence, in my opinion, goes to show that 
the stone properly called chalchihuitl is that which Molina 
defines to be ^^haja esmeralda,^^ or possibly nephrite, "a jas- 
per of very green color," as Sahagun, already quoted, avers. 
I should therefore object, on strictly critical and historical 
grounds, to the suggestion of Mr. Blake, that the variety of 
turquoise found by him should be " known among mineralo- 
gists as chalchihuitl.^^ 

* In Mr. Christy's museum is also a wooden mask encrusted in like manner, 
with turquoises, malachite, and white and red sliells. The predominant stone 
in all is the turquoise. The back of the skull in the specimen engraved is cut 
away, so as to admit the face to be hung by leathern thongs (which still remain) 
over the face of an idol, as was the custom in Mexico. The transverse black 
bauds in the cut are of obsidian in the original. The eyeballs are nodules of iron 
pyrites, cut hemispherically, and highly polished. 



Chalchihuitls from Central America. 11 

But apart from any speculations on the subject, I have to 
lay before the Lyceum a most interesting series of green stones, 
unrivalled, in their way, in the world, which were found 
among the ruins of Ocosingo, in the department of Quesalte- 
nango, Guatemala, on the borders of Chiapas, and not remote 
from the more famous but hardly less imposing monuments of 
Palenque. I must not omit to say that, in common M'ith simi- 
lar stones, they were designated by the people of the region 
where they were found as chalchichuites. 

Fig. 2. — The first and most interesting of these is precisely 

n 




f Fig. 2. 
Chalchihuitl, or engraved precious stone, from Ocosingo, Central America. Full size. 

four inches long by two and three-tenths broad, and about half 
an inch in average thickness. The face is sculptured in low re- 



12 



OlfservaUons on a Collection of 



lief, with the tigure of a divinity seated, cross-legged, on a kind 
of carved seat, with his left hand resting on his thigh, and his 
right raised to his breast, as if in the act of giving benediction. 
Around ]iis loins is an ornamental girdle, and depending from 
his neck and resting on his breast is an oblong rectangular plate 
or charm, not unlike that said to have been worn by tlie Jewish 
high-priests. The face is in profile, showing the salient nose and 




Fio. 8. 
B^sso-Iterievo of the gud Cuoulcan, from Palenque. 

conventional receding forehead that cliaracterize most Central 
American sculptures. Ornaments arc inserted in the lobes of 
the ears, and the head is surmounted with the characteristic and 
elaborate plumed head dress that we observe on the Palenque 
monuments and in the paintings. The whole is almost an exact 



ChalGhihuitls from Central America. 13 

miniature copy of the large las-relief found by Mr. Stephens 
in an inner chamber of one of the ruined structures of Palenque 
(Fig. 3). At about one-third of the length of the carved chalchi- 
liuitl, measuring from the top, it is drilled through from edge to 
edge, the hole being a little less than two-tenths of an inch in 
diameter ; the drilling having been made from each side to the 
centre, where the two drillings run one into the other, with a 
slightly diminished bore. The purpose of this seems to have 
been to suspend the object from the neck or other part of the 
person ; but the back edges of the plate are also pierced 
diagonally, as if to afford means of fastening it to cloth or other 
material, without those means showing in front. 

Fig. 4. — The next relic in importance is of a similar but 




Fig. 4. 
Chalchihuitl from Ocosingo. Two-thirds actual size. 

more opaque material, which, were it not for a strij) of clear 
quartz on one edge, might be mistaken for enamel. It is a 
semi-disk in shape, four and a half inches in length by two 
and seven-tenths in greatest width. It shows a human face in 
full front, surmounted by a kind of heraldic shield, and sur- 
rounded by a profusion of feather ornaments, with huge 
ear-rings and other ornaments below the chin. It, too, is 
pierced near its upper edge, longitudinally from side to side. 
The back shows that it was sawn from a solid block of the 
same material, both from above and below, until the cuttings 



14 Observations on a Collection of 

reached each other within half an inch, when tlie intermediate 
core, if I may so call it, was broken off. The swerve of the 
saw is distinctly visible from the top as well as the bottom, 
although the stance are nearly polished out. This was clearly 
intended to be suspended, as there are no means by which to 
fasten it to robes of any kind. It must have served as a gorget 
or breast-plate. 

Fig. 5. — This is a most interesting, although a very irregular, 




Fm. 5. 
Chalchihuitl from Ocosiiigo. Two-thirds actual size. 

and comparatively rude specimen, four inches and two-tenths 
long by two and a half inches wide at its widest part. The 
back shows a compact greenish stone, with the same evidences 
of having been sawn from a solid block, to which I have al- 
luded in describing Fig. 4. Tlie front appears as if of a bril- 
liant green enamel, exhibiting a full human face with a large 
and elaborate feather helmet or crown, huge ear and neck 
ornaments impossible to describe, and only to be understood 
V>y inspection of the original. This, too, is pierced, like that 
last described, from edge to edge, near its upper end. 



ChalGhihuitls from Central America. 15 

Fig. 6. — ^This is a comparatively small fragment of identical 
material with Fig, 2, an irregular triangle in shape, somewhat 
concave on the face, where is carved in profile a human head, 
surmounted also with elaborate plumes, but with eyes closed 




Fig. 6. 
Chalchihuitl from Ocosingo. Full size. 



as if in death. This is drilled through vertically and horizon- 
tally, and there are small diagonal holes, designed to afford 
means of attachment by threads to some portion of the dress 
of the wearer. It is polished back and face, and measures 
two and three-tenths inches by one and nine-tenths. It has 
its almost exact counterpart in the Christy, formerly Mayer 
Museum, of London. 

Fig. 7: — This specimen is peculiar and very interesting. It 
is a slightly irregular globe, two and six-tenths inches in diam- 
eter, pierced from top to bottom by a perfectly circular hole 
one and three-tenths of an inch in diameter. On three sides, 
if I may use the expression in respect of a sphere, are as many 
engraved hieroglyphics, using that term in the popular sense, 
but which I conceive to be syllabo- phonetic or phono-syllabic 



16 



Observations on a Collection of 



signs, of which, of course, only engravings can give any ade- 
quate notion. (Figs. 8, 9, 10.) As I shall have something 




Fig. 7. 
Chalchihuitl globe, pierced. One-fourt size. 



to say about this specimen further on, I proceed to notice a 
simple polished perfect globe, of the same material with that 





Figs. 8, 9, 10. 
•' Hieroglyphics " on Chalchihuitl globe. Full size. 

last alluded to, and which may be sufficiently described as a 
large bead, an inch and a tenth in diameter, pierced through 
its exact centre by a hole sufficiently large to admit a stout 
thread. 





Fios. 11, 12. 
Chalchihuitl orniiinentA. H.ilf size. 



Figs. 11 and 12 are types of a large class of what may be 
cJiUed chalchihuitl ornaments, with no special significance. 



Chalchihuitls from Central America. 17 

Figs. 13 and 14, however, may have a hieroglyphical signifi- 
cance. The latter (Fig. 14) is a fragment of a thin plate, of the 





Figs. 13, 14. 
Chalchihuitl engraved plates. 

same stone with the objects already described, two inches and 
eight-tenths in length by two inches and three-tenths broad 
and two-tenths of an inch thick, engraved on both surfaces 
and cut through with ornamental devices. 

Fig. 15 is an engraving of one of a number of hat-shaped ob- 




FiG. 15. 

jects of the stone under notice, pierced through, so as to leave 
a very thin rim and walls, and obviously designed to hold 
those pe7iachos or clusters of feathers which the Spanish con- 
querors so often describe, and which are so conspicuous in the 
head ornaments represented on the monuments and in the abo- 
riginal paintings of Mexico, Central America, and Peru. 
They are each two inches and two-tenths in diameter over the 
rim, one inch and one-tenth high, with a bore of eight-tenths 
of an inch in diameter. 

The relics above described are fair types of the chalchihuitls 
found at Ocosingo ; but I possess some other worked and en- 
graved green stones, worth mentioning, perhaps, in this con- 
nection. The first of these, 



18 Observations on a Collection of 

Fig. 16, has some resemblance to the engraved Assyrian 
seals, or, as they are sometimes called, " Chaldean " cylinders. 
It is a perforated cylindrical piece of heavy, opaque stone, of 
a dark sea-green color (nephrite ?), two inches long by an inch 
and one-tenth in diameter. In a kind of oval, or vs^hat Egyptian 
scholars would call a cartouohe, is presented the profile of some 




Fig. 16. 
Engraved etone cylinder from Yucatan. 

divinity (the Maya god of Death ?), with the eye closed and 
the tongue depending from the corner of the mouth. Some- 
thing like claws, engraved on a projection of the cylinder, 
start out from the ca/rtouche on the left side. The whole is 
boldly and sharply cut, and highly polished. This relic was 
obtained from the island of Flores, the ancient Tayasal, in the 
lake of Itza or Peten, in Yucatan. Among the things found 
by the conqueror of the Itzaes, Ursua, in the temples which he 
destroyed in the island in 1697, he mentions " an idol of eme- 
rald a span long, which," says the chronicler, " he appropriated 
to himself." 

It may be observed of the figure engraved on this stone, that 
to speak, among American nations, was the verbal as well as 
symbolical expression of life or being, as is ^ see or to hreathe^ 
or to eat, among other nations in various parts of the world. 
The projecting tongue in the sculptured and painted American 
idols and figures denotes the living god or man ; he who can 



Chalchihuitls from Central America. 



19 



talk, and therefore lives. In this instance, the lax and droop- 
ing tongue heightens the idea of death which the closed eje in 
part conveys. 

Fig. it is an engraving of a stone hatchet or adze of hard 
green stone, resembling quartz, five inches long. It is highly- 
polished on the face, but the reverse has marks which show 
that it too was sawn from a block of the same material. 




Fig. it. 
Hatchet of green stone from Costa Eiea. 

"Where the notches occur in the sides there are holes drilled 
entirely through the stone, parallel with its face. The lower 
or cutting edge is slightly curved outward, implying that, if 
intended for practical service, it was as an adze. But it is to be 
presumed that it was worn symbolically, in the way of distinc- 
tion or ornament. It was found in an ancient grave in Costa 
Rica. The ruling Inca of Peru carried an axe instead of a 
sceptre as one of his insignia of dominion.* 

* In Greece stone weapons of jade or nephrite are sometimes found, which the 
common people call "thunderbolts," and hold in high estimation. A correspon- 
dent of the London Athenceum found a similar object, called by the same name, in 
Nassau, New Providence, in the Bahamas. He describes it as polished and flat- 
tened, pointed at one end, with a broad cutting edge at the other, and regarded by 
the natives as a preventive against lightning. Another correspondent of the 



20 



Observations on a Collection of 



Fig. 18 (full size of original) is the easily recognizable figure 
of a frog, in a kind of malachite, from the island of Omotepec, 
Lake Nicaragua. 




Fig. 18. 
Sculptured frog, Nicaragua. 



Fig. 19 is of still another and harder variety of green stone, 
from a mound near Natchez, and appears to be a strange com- 
bination of the head of the siren of our western waters, or of 




Fig. 19. 
Carved green stone found near Natchez. 

the frog, with the liuman body. It is also pierced laterally, 
like those already described, doubtless for suspension. 

I do not present Fios. 10, 17, 18, and 19 as specimens of the 
chalchi/'Hitl, but as showing the regard paid to green stones 
generally. It is one that pervades both continents and many 

same publicatioa states that ho found a similar object in Jamaica forty years ago, 
also called a tiiundcrbolt. It was kept in an earthou jar tilled with water, and 
was supposed to keep the water cool. 



Chalchihuitls from Central America. 21 

nations, from the advanced Chinese, to whom the green jade is 
sacred, to the savage dwellers on the banks of the Orinoco, 
among whom Humboldt found cylinders of hard green stones, 
the most highly prized objects of the several tribes, and some 
of which it must have required a lifetime to work into shape. 

Of the carved chalchihuitls, like those described from Fig. 1 
to Fig. 15, I have seen but three specimens outside of my own 
collection : one already alluded to in the Christy Museum of 
London, another in the late Uhde Museum near Heidelberg, 
and a third in the Waldeck collection in Paris. 

The question how these obdurate stones were engraved, 
drilled, and sawn apart, or from the blocks of which they once 
formed a portion, is one likely to arise in most minds. It is 
one that has puzzled many inquirers ; nor do I pretend to give 
an answer, except that the drilling was probably performed by 
a vibratory drill, composed of a thin shaft of cane or bamboo, the 
silica of which was re-enforced by very fine sand, or the dust of 
the very article under treatment. The strice shown in the ori- 
fices are proof of something of the kind, and the esteem at- 
tached to these stones by the aborigines proves that their value, 
like that of the main-spring of a watch, was due mainly to the 
amount of labor expended in their production. 

As regards the sawing, of which the backs of Figs. 4, 5, and 17 
afford striking examples, we may find a clue in the accounts of 
the early chroniclers, who relate that they saw, in Santo Do- 
mingo and elsewhere, the natives use a thread of the cdbuya 
(or agave), with a little sand, not only in cutting stone, but 
iron itself. The thread was held in both hands, and drawn 
right and left until worn out by attrition, and then changed for 
a new one, fine sand and water being constantly supplied. 

Not a few inquirers entertain the hypothesis that most of 
the raised and sunken figures on various stones in Mexico, 
Central America, and the mounds of the United States, were 
produced by persistent rubbing or abrasion — a general hypothe- 
sis which I shall not dispute. But in objects from the mounds, 



22 Chalchihuitls from Central America. 

as well as from other points on the continent, we have distinct 
evidence of the use of graving or incisive tools of some kind — 
as for instance in the hieroglyphics in Fig. 7, which are cut in 
a stone so hard that the blade of a knife produces scarcely any 
impression on its polished suiface. 



